Anyone familiar with something called the "brightness balance" on the Sony SL-5800? It appears to adjust the brightness between the two video fields during pause/slow motion/betascan, to eliminate flicker.

My problem is that it doesn't fully eliminate the flicker between the fields, and I found an old Popular Electronics article (attached) which mentions internal adjustments that are used to align it. I just have no idea what they are called and don't want to start guessing and blindly adjusting things since everything else on this VCR is working fine.

In typical "me" fashion - I posted this too soon. I found two adjustments on the CR-9 board; Y Level 1 and Y Level 2. They adjust the Y/Luma "ratio" between the heads in special effects modes.

Y Level 1 = RV401/RV1 = Beta II Adjustment
Y Level 2 = RV402/RV2 = Beta III Adjustment

.... for anyone in the future looking for this info. Now the "brightness balance" control on the front of the VCR can sit in the middle, with some play on either side. Cheers!

Very cool, I am glad that you found this solution and posted it. The SL-5800 was an absolute gem of a VCR when it came out, the first one with noise-free freeze frame and slow motion.